
Proto
How One Ancient Language Went Global
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed

Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $19.62
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Emma Spurgin-Hussey
-
By:
-
Laura Spinney
About this listen
Bloomsbury presents Proto by Laura Spinney, read by Emma Spurgin-Hussey
The enthralling story of how today’s largest language family, spoken by nearly half the world’s population, descended from one ancient dialect.
Daughter. Duhitár-. Dustr. Dukte. Listen to these English, Sanskrit, Armenian and Lithuanian words, all meaning the same thing, and you hear echoes of one of history’s most unlikely journeys. All four languages—along with hundreds of others, from French and Gaelic, to Persian and Polish—trace their origins to an ancient tongue spoken as the last ice age receded. This language, which we call Proto-Indo-European, was born between Europe and Asia and exploded out of its cradle, fragmenting as it spread east and west. Its last speaker died thousands of years ago, yet Proto-Indo-European lives on in its myriad linguistic offspring and in some of our best loved works of literature, including Dante’s Inferno and the Rig Veda, The Lord of the Rings and the love poetry of Rumi. How did this happen?
Acclaimed journalist Laura Spinney set out to answer that question, retracing the Indo-European odyssey across continents and millennia. With her we travel the length of the steppe, navigating the Caucasus, the silk roads and the Hindu Kush. We retrace the epic journeys of nomads and monks, warriors and kings – the ancient peoples who carried these languages far and wide. In the present, Spinney meets the scientists on a thrilling mission to retrieve the lost languages and their speakers: the linguists, archaeologists and geneticists who have reconstructed that ancient diaspora. What they have learned has profound implications for our modern world, because people and their languages are on the move again. Proto is a revelatory portrait of world history in its own words.
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Pronoun Trouble
- The Story of Us in Seven Little Words
- By: John McWhorter
- Narrated by: John McWhorter
- Length: 4 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With his trademark humor and flair, bestselling linguist John McWhorter busts the myths and shares the history of the most controversial language topic of our times: pronouns.
-
-
the single best linguistics book I've ever read
- By Jeremy on 05-19-25
By: John McWhorter
-
When the Earth Was Green
- Plants, Animals, and Evolution's Greatest Romance
- By: Riley Black
- Narrated by: Wren Mack
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Riley Black brings us back in time to prehistoric seas, swamps, forests, and savannas where critical moments in plant evolution unfolded. Each chapter stars plants and animals alike, underscoring how the interactions between species have helped shape the world we call home. As the chapters move upwards in time, Black guides listeners along the burgeoning trunk of the Tree of Life, stopping to appreciate branches of an evolutionary story that links the world we know with one we can only just perceive now through the silent stone, from ancient roots to the present.
-
-
No argument
- By Anonymous User on 05-20-25
By: Riley Black
-
Ancient Christianities
- The First Five Hundred Years
- By: Paula Fredriksen
- Narrated by: Rachel Perry
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The ancient Mediterranean teemed with gods. For centuries, a practical religious pluralism prevailed. How, then, did one particular god come to dominate the politics and piety of the late Roman Empire? In Ancient Christianities, Paula Fredriksen traces the evolution of early Christianity—or rather, of early Christianities—through five centuries of Empire, mapping its pathways from the hills of Judea to the halls of Rome and Constantinople.
-
-
Among the best
- By Jacob Kilgore on 04-17-25
By: Paula Fredriksen
-
Ocean
- Earth's Last Wilderness
- By: Sir David Attenborough, Colin Butfield
- Narrated by: Sir David Attenborough, Colin Butfield
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Through personal stories, history and cutting-edge science, Ocean uncovers the mystery, the wonder and the frailty of the most unexplored habitat on our planet—and the one which shapes the land we live on, regulates our climate and creates the air we breathe. The book showcase the oceans' remarkable resilience: they are the part of our world that can, and in some cases has, recovered the fastest, if we only give them the chance.
-
-
Activists not naturalist
- By Pawl on 06-01-25
By: Sir David Attenborough, and others
-
Roman Britain
- A New History: Revised Edition
- By: Guy de la Bédoyère
- Narrated by: Elliot Fitzpatrick
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The author first outlines events from the Iron Age period immediately preceding the conquest in AD 43 to the emperor Honorius's advice to the Britons in 410 to fend for themselves. He then tackles the issues facing Britons after the absorption of their culture by an invading army, including the role of government and the military in the province, religion, commerce, technology, and daily life. For this revised edition, the text and bibliography have been updated to reflect the latest discoveries and research in recent years.
-
Turning to Birds
- The Power and Beauty of Noticing
- By: Lili Taylor
- Narrated by: Lili Taylor
- Length: 4 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Through a series of beautifully crafted essays, Taylor shares her intimate encounters with the birds that have captured her heart and imagination—from tracking flitting woodpeckers through oak trees to spotting majestic blue jays perched on a Manhattan fire escape; from the exhilaration of witnessing a migratory flock from the top of the Empire State Building to the quiet joy of observing a nest of hatchlings in her own backyard. Through simply paying attention to birds, Lili has been shown a parallel world that is wider and deeper, one of constant change and movement, full of life.
-
-
Bird lovers will rejoice!
- By Fascination with Fear on 05-10-25
By: Lili Taylor
-
Pronoun Trouble
- The Story of Us in Seven Little Words
- By: John McWhorter
- Narrated by: John McWhorter
- Length: 4 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With his trademark humor and flair, bestselling linguist John McWhorter busts the myths and shares the history of the most controversial language topic of our times: pronouns.
-
-
the single best linguistics book I've ever read
- By Jeremy on 05-19-25
By: John McWhorter
-
When the Earth Was Green
- Plants, Animals, and Evolution's Greatest Romance
- By: Riley Black
- Narrated by: Wren Mack
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Riley Black brings us back in time to prehistoric seas, swamps, forests, and savannas where critical moments in plant evolution unfolded. Each chapter stars plants and animals alike, underscoring how the interactions between species have helped shape the world we call home. As the chapters move upwards in time, Black guides listeners along the burgeoning trunk of the Tree of Life, stopping to appreciate branches of an evolutionary story that links the world we know with one we can only just perceive now through the silent stone, from ancient roots to the present.
-
-
No argument
- By Anonymous User on 05-20-25
By: Riley Black
-
Ancient Christianities
- The First Five Hundred Years
- By: Paula Fredriksen
- Narrated by: Rachel Perry
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The ancient Mediterranean teemed with gods. For centuries, a practical religious pluralism prevailed. How, then, did one particular god come to dominate the politics and piety of the late Roman Empire? In Ancient Christianities, Paula Fredriksen traces the evolution of early Christianity—or rather, of early Christianities—through five centuries of Empire, mapping its pathways from the hills of Judea to the halls of Rome and Constantinople.
-
-
Among the best
- By Jacob Kilgore on 04-17-25
By: Paula Fredriksen
-
Ocean
- Earth's Last Wilderness
- By: Sir David Attenborough, Colin Butfield
- Narrated by: Sir David Attenborough, Colin Butfield
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Through personal stories, history and cutting-edge science, Ocean uncovers the mystery, the wonder and the frailty of the most unexplored habitat on our planet—and the one which shapes the land we live on, regulates our climate and creates the air we breathe. The book showcase the oceans' remarkable resilience: they are the part of our world that can, and in some cases has, recovered the fastest, if we only give them the chance.
-
-
Activists not naturalist
- By Pawl on 06-01-25
By: Sir David Attenborough, and others
-
Roman Britain
- A New History: Revised Edition
- By: Guy de la Bédoyère
- Narrated by: Elliot Fitzpatrick
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The author first outlines events from the Iron Age period immediately preceding the conquest in AD 43 to the emperor Honorius's advice to the Britons in 410 to fend for themselves. He then tackles the issues facing Britons after the absorption of their culture by an invading army, including the role of government and the military in the province, religion, commerce, technology, and daily life. For this revised edition, the text and bibliography have been updated to reflect the latest discoveries and research in recent years.
-
Turning to Birds
- The Power and Beauty of Noticing
- By: Lili Taylor
- Narrated by: Lili Taylor
- Length: 4 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Through a series of beautifully crafted essays, Taylor shares her intimate encounters with the birds that have captured her heart and imagination—from tracking flitting woodpeckers through oak trees to spotting majestic blue jays perched on a Manhattan fire escape; from the exhilaration of witnessing a migratory flock from the top of the Empire State Building to the quiet joy of observing a nest of hatchlings in her own backyard. Through simply paying attention to birds, Lili has been shown a parallel world that is wider and deeper, one of constant change and movement, full of life.
-
-
Bird lovers will rejoice!
- By Fascination with Fear on 05-10-25
By: Lili Taylor
-
Everything Is Tuberculosis
- The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection
- By: John Green
- Narrated by: John Green
- Length: 5 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2019, author John Green met Henry Reider, a young tuberculosis patient at Lakka Government Hospital in Sierra Leone. John became fast friends with Henry, a boy with spindly legs and a big, goofy smile. In the years since that first visit to Lakka, Green has become a vocal advocate for increased access to treatment and wider awareness of the healthcare inequities that allow this curable, preventable infectious disease to also be the deadliest, killing over a million people every year. In Everything Is Tuberculosis, John tells Henry’s story.
-
-
TB: The past? More like the present.
- By Kindle Customer on 04-02-25
By: John Green
-
The Naked Neanderthal
- A New Understanding of the Human Creature
- By: Ludovic Slimak
- Narrated by: John Sackville
- Length: 6 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Slimak has travelled around the world for the past thirty years to uncover who the Neanderthals really were. A modern-day Indiana Jones, he takes us on a fascinating archaeological investigation: from the Arctic Circle to the deep Mediterranean forests, he traces the steps of these enigmatic creatures, working to decipher their real stories through every single detail they left behind.
-
-
Controversial
- By Patrick on 10-03-24
By: Ludovic Slimak
-
Inventing the Renaissance
- The Myth of a Golden Age
- By: Ada Palmer
- Narrated by: Candida Gubbins
- Length: 30 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the darkness of a plagued and war-torn Middle Ages, the Renaissance (we’re told) heralds the dawning of a new world—a halcyon age of art, prosperity, and rebirth. Hogwash! or so says award-winning novelist and historian Ada Palmer. In Inventing the Renaissance, Palmer turns her witty and irreverent eye on the fantasies we’ve told ourselves about Europe’s not-so-golden age, myths she sets right with sharp clarity.
-
-
Completely changed my perspective of Machiavelli
- By Amazon Customer on 04-30-25
By: Ada Palmer
-
Diet, Drugs, and Dopamine
- The New Science of Achieving a Healthy Weight
- By: David A. Kessler M.D.
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber, David A. Kessler M.D.
- Length: 11 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the New York Times bestselling author of The End of Overeating comes an illuminating understanding of body weight, including the role of the latest weight loss drugs, and the possibility of changing our health, weight, and bodies forever.
-
-
Hold Plant Based
- By Bert Garcia on 05-21-25
-
Knowing What We Know
- The Transmission of Knowledge: From Ancient Wisdom to Modern Magic
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 14 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the creation of the first encyclopedia to Wikipedia, from ancient museums to modern kindergarten classes—this is Simon Winchester’s brilliant and all-encompassing look at how humans acquire, retain, and pass on information and data, and how technology continues to change our lives and our minds. Throughout this fascinating tour, Winchester forces us to ponder what rational humans are becoming. What good is all this knowledge if it leads to lack of thought? What is information without wisdom?
-
-
Colorful anecdotes but tiring after a while.
- By Thumb Guy on 05-03-23
By: Simon Winchester
-
The World Before Us
- The New Science Behind Our Human Origins
- By: Tom Higham
- Narrated by: John Sackville
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A fascinating investigation of the origin of humans based on incredible new discoveries and advanced scientific technology.
-
-
Wonderfully Accessible
- By Deborah N on 11-02-21
By: Tom Higham
-
Homer and His Iliad
- By: Robin Lane Fox
- Narrated by: Steve John Shepherd
- Length: 16 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Iliad is the world’s greatest epic poem—heroic battle and divine fate set against the Trojan War. Its beauty and profound bleakness are intensely moving, but great questions remain: Where, how, and when was it composed and why does it endure? Robin Lane Fox addresses these questions, drawing on a lifelong love and engagement with the poem. He argues for a place, a date, and a method for its composition—subjects of ongoing controversy—combining the detailed expertise of a historian with a poetic reader’s sensitivity.
-
-
Masterful!
- By J. C. Weaver on 01-08-24
By: Robin Lane Fox
-
Oberon’s Bathtime Stories
- By: Kevin Hearne
- Narrated by: Luke Daniels
- Length: 4 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
If you give Oberon the Irish wolfhound a bath, he's going to ask you for a story. Fortunately, his human, Atticus, has many centuries of life under his belt as the Iron Druid, and a whole lot of stories to share. Enjoy twelve new short stories from the New York Times bestselling series the Iron Druid Chronicles. Join Oberon and his Boston terrier buddy, Starbuck, in the tub as they hear about Corrie Ten Boom, Junko Tabei, Francisco de Miranda, Johannes Kepler, and many other figures from history spanning centuries. Sack Rome with King Alaric of the Visigoths or have a think with Auguste Rodin!
-
-
How I loved you once.
- By Kasey on 04-12-25
By: Kevin Hearne
-
Persians
- The Age of the Great Kings
- By: Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones
- Narrated by: Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones
- Length: 18 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Achaemenid Persian kings ruled over the largest empire of antiquity, stretching from Libya to the steppes of Asia and from Ethiopia to Pakistan. In Persians, historian Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones tells the epic story of this dynasty and the world it ruled. Drawing on Iranian inscriptions, cuneiform tablets, art, and archaeology, he shows how the Achaemenid Persian Empire was the world’s first superpower—one built, despite its imperial ambition, on cooperation and tolerance. This is the definitive history of the Achaemenid dynasty and its legacies in modern-day Iran.
-
-
Good History and Historiography
- By David A on 04-19-22
-
Prehistory
- Making of the Human Mind
- By: Colin Renfrew
- Narrated by: Robert Ian MacKenzie
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A giant of archaeology, Colin Renfrew has immeasurably improved our understanding of human history. In this passionately argued work, he offers a concise summary of prehistory - human existence that predates the development of written records - while challenging the very definition of prehistory itself.
-
-
not for the intellectually challenged
- By Anthony on 07-14-10
By: Colin Renfrew
-
Who We Are and How We Got Here
- By: David Reich
- Narrated by: John Lescault
- Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Geneticists like David Reich have made astounding advances in the field of genomics, which is proving to be as important as archaeology, linguistics, and written records as a means to understand our ancestry. In Who We Are and How We Got Here, Reich allows listeners to discover how the human genome provides not only all the information a human embryo needs to develop but also the hidden story of our species.
-
-
Great Book, No Maps Available thru Audible
- By Jane W. on 07-15-18
By: David Reich
-
Renaissance: The Transformation of the West
- By: Jennifer McNabb, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Jennifer McNabb
- Length: 26 hrs and 35 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
While it’s easy to get caught up - and, rightfully so - in the art of the Renaissance, you cannot have a full, rounded understanding of just how important these centuries were without digging beneath the surface, without investigating the period in terms of its politics, its spirituality, its philosophies, its economics, and its societies. Do just that with these 48 lectures that consider the European Renaissance from all sides, that disturb traditional understandings, that tip sacred cows, and that enlarges our understanding of how the Renaissance revolutionized the Western world.
-
-
Reads like a bad high school essay.
- By Matthew Dennis on 10-29-18
By: Jennifer McNabb, and others
Critic reviews
'Formidably researched but lightly written, I put down this book with the pleasurable sense that the world around me had become a little stranger and richer.' (Helen Gordon)
'Superb. With style and panache, Laura Spinney tells a truly extraordinary detective story.' (Matt Ridley)
'This beautifully researched and written book is about far more than language; it is a history of the world in microcosm, drawing together a diversity of subjects from genetics and religion to warfare and boozing. I highly recommend this wholly absorbing book.' (Douglas Preston)
'Spinney charts an extraordinary journey through human history with words as a compass. It is a sweeping story beautifully told. Profound and illuminating.5' (Moudhy Al-Rashid)
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Pale Rider
- The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World
- By: Laura Spinney
- Narrated by: Paul Hodgson
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this gripping narrative history, Laura Spinney traces the overlooked pandemic to reveal how the virus travelled across the globe, exposing mankind's vulnerability and putting our ingenuity to the test. As socially significant as both world wars, the Spanish flu dramatically disrupted - and often permanently altered - global politics, race relations, and family structures while spurring innovation in medicine, religion, and the arts.
-
-
A Predilection for Those in the Prime of Life
- By Cynthia on 02-12-18
By: Laura Spinney
-
The Raging Erie
- Life and Labor Along the Erie Canal
- By: Mark S. Ferrara
- Narrated by: Jack de Golia
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The completion of the Erie Canal in 1825 was a monumental achievement. Linking the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean, it transformed New York City into a hub of international trade, drove the rise of industrial cities in once sparsely populated areas, and accelerated the westward expansion of the United States. Yet few of the laborers who toiled along the canal shared in the prosperity it brought.
By: Mark S. Ferrara
-
Roman History: An Enthralling Guide to the Republic, Empire, and Legacy of Ancient Rome and Byzantium
- By: Billy Wellman
- Narrated by: Virtual Voice
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Unlock the story of Rome like never before Step into the heart of the ancient world and experience the rise, reign, and remarkable transformation of one of history’s most powerful civilizations. Three manuscripts in one book: Roman Empire: An Enthralling Overview of Imperial Rome Roman Republic: An Enthralling Overview of the Rise and Fall The Byzantine Empire: An Enthralling Overview of the Byzantium Here’s just a tiny fraction of what you’ll discover inside: The dramatic rise of Augustus — and how he turned chaos into empire. Scandals, betrayals, and bloodshed in Rome’s ...
By: Billy Wellman
-
Plato and the Tyrant
- The Fall of Greece's Greatest Dynasty and the Making of a Philosophic Masterpiece
- By: James Romm
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 13 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Plato and the Tyrant, acclaimed historian and classicist James Romm draws on personal letters of Plato to show how a philosopher helped topple the leading Greek power of the era: the opulent city of Syracuse. There, Plato encountered two authoritarian rulers, a father and son both named Dionysius, and tried to steer them toward philosophy. At the same time, he worked on his masterpiece, Republic, in which he conceived a ruler who unites perfect wisdom with absolute power.
By: James Romm
-
In Defense of Partisanship
- By: Julian E. Zelizer
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 5 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Partisanship is a dirty word in American politics. If there is one issue on which almost everyone in our divided country seems to agree, it’s the belief that the intense loyalty within the electorate toward Democrats and Republicans is the source of our democratic ills—division, dysfunction, distrust, and disinformation. The possibilities that responsible partisanship can offer were at the heart of an important intellectual tradition that flourished in the 1950s and 1960s, one which was institutionalized through a sweeping set of congressional reforms in the 1970s and 1980s.
-
So Very Small
- How Humans Discovered the Microcosmos, Defeated Germs–and May Still Lose the War Against Infectious Disease
- By: Thomas Levenson
- Narrated by: Mike Cooper
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
“An elegant, wide-ranging history” (The New York Review of Books) of the centuries-long quest to discover the critical role of germs in disease that reveals as much about human reasoning—and the pitfalls of ego—as it does about microbes.
-
-
A gripping account of a triumph of humanity, and our limitations
- By Something Innocuous on 05-12-25
By: Thomas Levenson
-
Pale Rider
- The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World
- By: Laura Spinney
- Narrated by: Paul Hodgson
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this gripping narrative history, Laura Spinney traces the overlooked pandemic to reveal how the virus travelled across the globe, exposing mankind's vulnerability and putting our ingenuity to the test. As socially significant as both world wars, the Spanish flu dramatically disrupted - and often permanently altered - global politics, race relations, and family structures while spurring innovation in medicine, religion, and the arts.
-
-
A Predilection for Those in the Prime of Life
- By Cynthia on 02-12-18
By: Laura Spinney
-
The Raging Erie
- Life and Labor Along the Erie Canal
- By: Mark S. Ferrara
- Narrated by: Jack de Golia
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The completion of the Erie Canal in 1825 was a monumental achievement. Linking the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean, it transformed New York City into a hub of international trade, drove the rise of industrial cities in once sparsely populated areas, and accelerated the westward expansion of the United States. Yet few of the laborers who toiled along the canal shared in the prosperity it brought.
By: Mark S. Ferrara
-
Roman History: An Enthralling Guide to the Republic, Empire, and Legacy of Ancient Rome and Byzantium
- By: Billy Wellman
- Narrated by: Virtual Voice
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Unlock the story of Rome like never before Step into the heart of the ancient world and experience the rise, reign, and remarkable transformation of one of history’s most powerful civilizations. Three manuscripts in one book: Roman Empire: An Enthralling Overview of Imperial Rome Roman Republic: An Enthralling Overview of the Rise and Fall The Byzantine Empire: An Enthralling Overview of the Byzantium Here’s just a tiny fraction of what you’ll discover inside: The dramatic rise of Augustus — and how he turned chaos into empire. Scandals, betrayals, and bloodshed in Rome’s ...
By: Billy Wellman
-
Plato and the Tyrant
- The Fall of Greece's Greatest Dynasty and the Making of a Philosophic Masterpiece
- By: James Romm
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 13 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Plato and the Tyrant, acclaimed historian and classicist James Romm draws on personal letters of Plato to show how a philosopher helped topple the leading Greek power of the era: the opulent city of Syracuse. There, Plato encountered two authoritarian rulers, a father and son both named Dionysius, and tried to steer them toward philosophy. At the same time, he worked on his masterpiece, Republic, in which he conceived a ruler who unites perfect wisdom with absolute power.
By: James Romm
-
In Defense of Partisanship
- By: Julian E. Zelizer
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 5 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Partisanship is a dirty word in American politics. If there is one issue on which almost everyone in our divided country seems to agree, it’s the belief that the intense loyalty within the electorate toward Democrats and Republicans is the source of our democratic ills—division, dysfunction, distrust, and disinformation. The possibilities that responsible partisanship can offer were at the heart of an important intellectual tradition that flourished in the 1950s and 1960s, one which was institutionalized through a sweeping set of congressional reforms in the 1970s and 1980s.
-
So Very Small
- How Humans Discovered the Microcosmos, Defeated Germs–and May Still Lose the War Against Infectious Disease
- By: Thomas Levenson
- Narrated by: Mike Cooper
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
“An elegant, wide-ranging history” (The New York Review of Books) of the centuries-long quest to discover the critical role of germs in disease that reveals as much about human reasoning—and the pitfalls of ego—as it does about microbes.
-
-
A gripping account of a triumph of humanity, and our limitations
- By Something Innocuous on 05-12-25
By: Thomas Levenson
-
The Buried City
- Unearthing the Real Pompeii
- By: Gabriel Zuchtriegel, Jamie Bulloch - translator
- Narrated by: Nick Biadon
- Length: 6 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Buried City, Gabriel Zuchtriegel takes us on a behind-the-scenes tour of Pompeii and reveals new archaeological finds that are being unearthed at the site’s biggest dig in a generation. As director of the Pompeii Archaeological Park, Zuchtriegel presents a uniquely intimate perspective on this city that was tragically destroyed and frozen in time by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE. Among the ruins, we find unmade beds, dishes left drying, and bodies of victims encased in ash, but Zuchtriegel shows that we’ve only begun to understand this fascinating place.
By: Gabriel Zuchtriegel, and others
-
Proof
- The Art and Science of Certainty
- By: Adam Kucharski
- Narrated by: Nathaniel Priestley
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An award-winning mathematician shows how we prove what’s true, and what to do when we can’t.
By: Adam Kucharski
-
The Language Puzzle
- Piecing Together the Six-Million-Year Story of How Words Evolved
- By: Steven Mithen
- Narrated by: Kerry Hutchinson
- Length: 13 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Language Puzzle, renowned archaeologist Steven Mithen puts forward a groundbreaking new account of the origins of language. Scientists have gained new insights into the first humans of 2.8 million years ago, and how numerous species flourished but only one, Homo sapiens, survives today. Drawing from this work and synthesizing research across archaeology, psychology, linguistics, genetics, and more, Mithen details a step-by-step explanation of how our human ancestors transitioned from apelike calls to words, and from words to language as we use it today.
By: Steven Mithen
-
536 AD
- The Worst Year to Be Alive in the History of Humankind
- By: Kamal Khalaf
- Narrated by: Zack Zimbler
- Length: 5 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 536 AD, the sun dimmed, the sky turned a ghostly gray, and global temperatures plummeted. Crops withered, famine spread like wildfire, and entire civilizations were thrown into chaos. Historians and scientists now recognize this year as one of the most catastrophic climate events in human history—a volcanic winter that reshaped the world.
By: Kamal Khalaf
-
What Is Ancient History?
- By: Walter Scheidel
- Narrated by: Michael Langan
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's easy to think that ancient history is, well, ancient history—obsolete, irrelevant, unjustifiably focused on Greece and Rome, and at risk of extinction. In What Is Ancient History?, Walter Scheidel presents a compelling case for a new kind of ancient history—a global history that captures antiquity's pivotal role as a decisive phase in human development, one that provided the shared foundation of our world and continues to shape our lives today.
By: Walter Scheidel
-
Born of Fire and Rain
- Journey into a Pacific Coastal Forest
- By: M.L. Herring
- Narrated by: Janet Metzger
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
If you live on a rapidly changing planet, you'd be wise to learn how it works. The giant old forests on a skinny stretch of land on the far west coast of North America have a lot to say about living in a twitchy world.
By: M.L. Herring
-
When the Stones Speak
- The Remarkable Discovery of the City of David and What Israel's Enemies Don't Want You to Know
- By: Doron Spielman
- Narrated by: Doron Spielman
- Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As former vice president of the City of David Foundation, Doron Spielman has guided numerous visitors—including donors, diplomats, professors, celebrities, and American politicians—on a journey into the City of David’s tunnels. While often holding vastly different political views, these visitors agree on one thing: the story of the City of David must be told.
-
-
Everything!
- By Debra on 06-01-25
By: Doron Spielman
-
The Great Betrayal
- The Struggle for Freedom and Democracy in the Middle East
- By: Fawaz A. Gerges
- Narrated by: Keval Shah
- Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Middle East is in upheaval: a widening chasm between state and society, the failure of governing elites to address citizens' genuine grievances, massive economic mismanagement—all made worse by repeated interventions by Western powers. Why has political change been so difficult to achieve? In The Great Betrayal, Fawaz Gerges argues that the convergence of political authoritarianism, meddling by the West, and the effects of prolonged regional conflicts have produced political paralysis and economic stagnation.
By: Fawaz A. Gerges
-
The Secret History of Bloody Bill Anderson
- The Truth Finally Uncovered
- By: JE Warr
- Narrated by: Virtual Voice
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"The Secret History of Bloody Bill The Truth Finally Uncovered " isn't just a neo-western; it's a literary experience—a what-if dream that dares to defy history and logic in equal measure. It's violent, it's funny, it's outrageous, and above all, it's immensely entertaining. Warr proves that when it comes to storytelling, he's in a league of his own, playing by his own rules. So, sit back in your Lazy boy, pour yourself a glass of cold beer, and enjoy the ride. Just be aware that historical accuracy has taken a backseat, been tied up, and told to shut the hell up while Warr takes us on a ...
By: JE Warr
-
Perfect Victims
- And the Politics of Appeal
- By: Mohammed El-Kurd
- Narrated by: Mohammed El-Kurd
- Length: 4 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Palestine is a microcosm of the world: on fire, stubborn, fragmented, dignified. While a settler colonial state continues to inflict devastating violence, fundamental truths are deliberately obscured—the perpetrators are coddled while the victims are blamed and placed on trial. How we see Palestine reveals how we see each other; how we see everything else. Masterfully combining candid testimony, history, and reportage, Perfect Victims presents a powerfully simple demand: dignity for the Palestinian.
-
-
Heart wrenching
- By Rania Habal on 05-18-25
By: Mohammed El-Kurd
-
Europe Between the Oceans
- 9000 BC-AD 1000
- By: Barry Cunliffe
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 18 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this magnificent book, distinguished archaeologist Barry Cunliffe reframes our entire conception of early European history, from prehistory through the ancient world to the medieval Viking period. Cunliffe views Europe not in terms of states and shifting political land boundaries but as a geographical niche particularly favored in facing many seas. These seas, and Europe's great transpeninsular rivers, ensured a rich diversity of natural resources while also encouraging the dynamic interaction of peoples across networks of communication and exchange.
-
-
Pathways of immigration
- By Brooks Smith on 12-21-24
By: Barry Cunliffe
-
The Wars of the Lord
- The Puritan Conquest of America's First People
- By: Matthew J. Tuininga
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 16 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Puritan Christianity, Matthew J. Tuininga shows, shaped both the spiritual and military conquests of New England from beginning to end.
Brilliant research and narration
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.